In Which Sara Makes a Video Blog

Hi Everyone!

I had so many thoughts about all things language, writing and art, that it was hard for me to get them all out. So today's blog comes to you in the form of a video! I think I might do more of these in the future. They will likely be shorter in the future, but all in all, I really enjoyed making this :).

Happy creating everyone!

S.  

Lights in the Dark

Last week I had my first ever author visit to the wonderful Braemar House School, where my niece attends. I presented to the Junior and Intermediate classes (grades 5-8) on my experiences being a writer, a creator of books and an aspiring language learner. I also read aloud from one of my books. It was awesome to share about how writing has helped me connect with, learn and share about my culture and our history as Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. It was also nice to realize that I'm really and truly living my dream of being a writer. To be able to look back and see that what I’m doing now—telling stories and starting to make comics—is something I’ve been working toward for thirty years. So yeah. It was an awesome experience and I’m grateful to have had it.  

And of course, the students themselves were nothing short of amazing. I’m always so impressed with young people, the questions they ask and their incredible capacity for compassion, understanding and imagination. They are lights in the dark. Being around young people is also an important reminder that the land and water is something we borrow from future generations and that we should be mindful of how the decisions we make today can impact their well-being now and for years to come. 

It made me realize that I want young people, including my daughters, nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephew, to have hope for the future. And that means doing my part now. To help find, share and create knowledge that empowers us to have compassionate discussions, to be who we are meant to be, and to hold a respectful place in our hearts for those around us. How to do this, especially right now, is a question I’ve thought a lot about over the last few weeks. 

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve found it challenging to read the news on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve tried to bring balance to my use of social media and establish some boundaries because as much as I enjoy the break from reading so many dismal reports, I also think it’s important to be informed. So for example, I will be looking to subscribe to one or two newspapers in the very near future, to help bring more balance to my life and help feel more prepared to interact with the world for the months ahead. Right now I feel like I’m reading everything, all of the time, which is great because there are so many important perspectives, but not so great in that it also really crowds out my own sense of self—especially when there are so many terrible things happening. I want to be a force for good and to be able to encourage others. To do that, I need to have some light to share. 

So at this time, creating is so important and making time to be creative is vital. Writing, painting, playing piano. These are things I can do to transform my space and because I’m connected to the world, it will spread :). 

In the meantime, I’ll keep doing my best to be supportive and compassionate, learn our languages, learn more about our culture with my daughters and share what I can with others so I can help build positive relationships and a sense of community for us all. 

I’m also focussing on my dissertation research. Right now, this means a lot of reading and thinking and revisiting aspects of research paradigms such as ontology and epistemology. I’ve started working on a series of paintings that can help me capture those ideas in a visual way and will hopefully reinforce my learning. It’s a way of staying active with my art practice and also moving forward with the work. 

This is the first painting I'll share. It’s a picture I drew while listening to a presentation about Indigenous research methods. The speaker talked about how the land is a teacher and that it teaches us things even if we don't recognize it right away. It was a really beautiful teaching that resonated and reinforced others I've heard from elders and speakers before. 

I hope you like it! Until next time!

Happy creating!

Sara

Home Sweet Home

I sometimes lose track of how many activities I like to do. Reading. Writing. Painting. Running. Playing video games. Taking long walks in the forest. But over the last few weeks I’ve remembered just how important they all are to me. They make me feel truly alive and happy and healthy—which helps me to feel more creative and imaginative.

We’ve just finished moving into our new house (yay!) and are in the process of getting settled. After so many months of being in transition—packing up one house, living with my very kind sister and her family for two months until finally coming here—I can honestly say that I feel like the luckiest person in the world. 

The process of building a house is complicated. There are these milestones, things that have to be done so the house can be built, and while they look straightforward on paper—none of them speak to the emotional and spiritual toll that building a new house can have. We've been working through this process for the last year. In many ways it’s just like writing a book—so much harder and involved than it looks like from the outside. It’s such a relief to be through the majority of it. Now I feel like it's time to replenish my spirit, fuel my imagination and create ALL THE THINGS.

I started my attempt to create ALL THE THINGS by playing my piano (probably because it had been put away in storage for two and half months), and I was blown away by how happy it made me. Like real and true joy happy. It was like a piece of me had been missing and was slowly being restored with every note I played. I also missed running. The track I like to run at is just down the road and as I write this, I’ve just returned from my first proper run in months. Years actually, since I wasn’t running a whole lot over the times that I was pregnant. I also went for a walk and played a video game with my niece. All of it was amazing. Awesome. Fantastic.

I suppose my point is, I am just very happy and grateful to be back to having time and making things again (including blog posts!). Last week felt like my first substantial opportunity to get back into the swing of things with my writing and it felt good to settle into a rhythm, working on a new book first thing in the morning, editing another book just after that and spending my afternoons getting back on track with all the projects I had to put aside. Plus it's just nice to be here at long last, creating our new space, here in the forest, surrounded by trees.

Right before I moved, I wrote this blog about how happy I could be with so little. And that’s still true. Moving taught me that more than ever, that home is where my family is, my husband and my children. But having space to actually create all the things I most dreamed of—movies, poems, paintings, comics—I am so very excited about that. Especially because I hope for many of them to be in the language, as another way of helping me to learn.

I’ll be sharing a lot more of those creations here and other places in the coming months. It’s going to be awesome. It already feels that way!

Happy creating,

S.